A small panel of very learned scientists discussed hormones on a prominent BBC episode of “In Our Time”, hosted by Melvyn Bragg. I’m no scientist, but I couldn’t resist commenting on this one. I enjoy these broadcasts not only because they’re informative and interesting, but because they provide more strength for my faith in a creator.
This, of course, is not the intention of Melvyn, the expert panel, the producers or the BBC. Rather, only dedicated evolutionists are chosen to discuss issues related to science. Scientists who are creationists, ID proponents or wavering in their faith in Darwinian evolution would not even be considered for the job.
I’ve commented on other episodes of “In Our Time” which relate to evolutionary thought: please see links to some of these posts at the bottom of this one.
THE UNSPOKEN “D” WORD
The takeaway from this episode for me was three-fold. Most significantly, I noticed that Melvyn’s curiosity-and not for the first time-almost got the better of his dedication to the establishment philosophy on origins. It seems you can hear him wanting to blurt out that nasty “d” word: Design. He already knows how much grief he would suffer if he did.
Secondly I learned a lot about the nature and value of hormones in the human body and in other animal life forms (the panel didn’t discuss hormones in plants). I became more aware and appreciative of the wonders and complexity of the endocrine system. The team did a good job of communicating this.
Finally, while the evolution of hormones was inevitably included in the discussion, no evidence for their evolution was offered, besides the fact that life forms regarded to be “primitive” and ancestral also require hormones to survive.
The fact that this is the only “evidence” offered for the evolution of hormones during the discussion is remarkable in itself, considering that the panel-experts on the endocrine system-are also very knowledgeable about evolution and fully on board with it. The limited evidence itself is, to me, somewhat suspect to say the least: Simple life forms such as bacteria and worms use hormones, and so, according to evolutionary thought, we use hormones also because we evolved from such organisms.
HORMONES
Hormones are chemical signals, being sent around our bodies every moment of every day and night. We have more than eighty different types of hormone, regulating all aspects of our being, and in turn being regulated and balanced by dominant glands. These hormones include more well-known chemicals such as estrogen, testosterone, cortisol, adrenalin and insulin. We cannot live a single day without the vital work of hormones. They circulate in the bloodstream, being sent to parts of the body where they’re needed. They co-ordinate all of our physiology, allowing us to perform the most fundamental operations. All species on earth have hormones regulating their bodies.
Endocrine glands manufacture their purpose-made hormones, package them, and release them when prompted into the bloodstream. There are also cells with the right kind of “machinery” to make hormones within our gut and our fat cells.
Upon arriving at the site where they’re needed, hormones “dock” with receptor molecules which are specific to each type of hormone: hormone and receptor must be a matching pair. Upon docking, a chain reaction is triggered within the cell, sending signals and regulating genes.
THE WHYS AND THE HOWS
For me the most significant benefit of this discussion was the opportunity to observe the host’s mind apparently teetering on the edge of a revolutionary thought; an epiphany; a moment of profound realization. I’m not sure if he, inside his own mind, is asking questions such as, “Did we really evolve or is it just a fanciful story?”, and if he’s perhaps hiding his own pathway to truth, or whether he is instead so enamoured by the knowledge and the credentials of the experts he interviews, and the sheer weight of peer pressure which evolutionism and his own position exerts, that he’s not able or willing to take his chain of thought any further than simple amazement.
FACTORY OF FACTORIES
Melvyn’s first expression of wonderment, almost out of step with the discussion, is as follows:
“The more I do of these programs over the last many years…. there seems to be a factory inside all of us-a very skillful, advanced, fine-crafted factory”.
One on the expert panel agrees, observing that the elements of our endocrine system can be seen as “the conductors of an orchestra”. However, she effectively deflects the import of Mel’s statement. I would add that the endocrine system is just one of the many systems playing together in the grand concert of life.
Before long Melvyn feels prompted to make another non-scientific observation on how remarkable the whole system is, then asks,
“Do you have any idea when this developed and how it developed?”
The expert, while agreeing that “It is amazing”, replies again to the effect that there are similar operations in bacteria. Many people, particularly those convinced of the prevailing story of evolution, would not even notice that Melvyn’s question was not answered. I did. We’re told only, at one point, that the evolution of hormones happened “two point four billion years ago”, and that bacteria also require hormones to live and survive. Bacteria have them, and bacteria have been around for a couple of billion years, therefore we have them. That’s supposed to settle it in our minds, but it doesn’t work for me.
CONTROL CENTRE
The pituitary and the epithalamus in the brain are key glands in the control of the entire endocrine system. The epithalamus orchestrates and orders the release of hormones from the pituitary, which then sends out stimulatory hormones to other glands, prompting them in turn to release their hormones. Mel remarks, “What strikes me is how efficient it seems to be”.
MALE HORMONE
The expert panel goes into some detail about the makeup of different hormones. The three main types are steroid hormones, which include testosterone and estrogen; protein hormones and modified amino acids. An aside which I found particularly interesting is that steroid hormones are made from cholesterol, and as the experts admitted, while we men have been told for decades that cholesterol is bad for us, it is in fact vital for the production of testosterone.
WHERE DID IT ALL COME FROM?
A further expression of Melvyn’s amazement comes upon discussion of the work of hormones in pregnancy, both for the mother and the baby. Without them and their incredible roles none of us would make it into the world in the first place. Here the expert sharing these amazing truths comments that the hormones provide “exquisite regulation”. Melvyn asks a sensible and obvious question:
“Where do you think that exquisite regulation comes from?”
That’s a good question Melvyn.
We don’t know exactly what Mel meant by this question, but given his other observations, it seems clear to me that it’s beyond what any naturalistic evolutionist is prepared to consider. A second expert barges in here, seemingly with the desire once more to deflect and dampen the depth and nature of the question. Again, it really isn’t an answer to the question. She states that one of the reasons, “I think” is that small variations in our bodies make things go wrong. We need this fine tuning to put things right, she says. In other words, incredible and irreducible complexity evolved because it was necessary. It’s all finely tuned because it has to be finely tuned in order to work. It works because it has to work. Brilliant! An obvious question, then, is “How did we survive while developing these essential hormones?” Isn’t this another “chicken and egg” situation?
“These things have evolved over time”, we’re told. There’s the magic formula: amino acids plus necessity plus vast stretches of time equals incredible complexity, in the mind of the evolutionist. Mel, unfortunately, submits, in awe of superior knowledge and rank: “So it all came together slowly…”
PRIMITIVE
Andrew observes that there is exactly the same machinery in creatures such as worms and flies as in us. “And that, I think, is amazing, and shows you that this is a fundamental necessity for life”.
In that case, and if hormones are necessary for the most “primitive” life forms such as bacteria, how did anything live at all before hormones “evolved”, and why (and how) did they evolve at all if life could arise and survive without them? Melvyn didn’t think of this question, or if he did, he didn’t have the nerve to ask it. Moreover, in an interview with three very intelligent and highly educated scientists, why was there no detail whatsoever on exactly how these complex molecules evolved, in the right place, at the right time, beyond the explanation that we needed them? Can we see the evidence that they evolved? If not (and we cannot) why should we believe it? Where is the evidence that they evolved? Is it in the existence of bacteria-present in our world now, not just two point four billion years ago?
As always, the true science of the discussion-what can be observed in our time as actual operational fact-is fascinating. However, evidence for the story of how it all came about is intangible, except in the mind of the evolutionist. We’re here, therefore we “must have” evolved from nothing.
THE PANEL ON THIS EPISODE OF “IN OUR TIME”:
Andrew Bicknell of the University of Reading
Sadaf Farooqui of the University of Cambridge
Rebecca Reynolds of the University of Edinburgh
SOME OTHER REVIEWS OF MINE OF “IN OUR TIME” SCIENCE BROADCASTS:
Fuel for Faith, Food for Thought 